SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, have conducted the first sucessful test flight of their Falcon 9 rocket. On June 4, the rocket lifted off at 1845 GMT. from pad SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, Florida and began its long climb to orbit. There were a few minor problems during the flight; the second stage beginning an uncommanded roll and the first stage parachute failing to deploy properly, but never the less, the rocket's dummy payload achieved an almost precise orbit insertion - a huge boost to the company's plans to provide low cost access to orbit.
During the maiden flight a dummy payload mass was used to simulate the weight (and record flight data) of the soon to be flown Dragon Capsule - a 3.7 metre diameter Apollo CM style re-entry vehicle that will be used to fly both crew and cargo towards the International Space Station; this is in line with NASA's $1.6 bn payment to SpaceX for up to 12 Dragon/Falcon 9 flights. Each flight will likely carry around 6 tonnes of supplies to the ISS.
Although Falcon 9 is dubbed as being able to provide low cost access to orbit, analysts are still cautious as to whether or not Elon Musk can maintain a minimum cost, high flight schedule. In addition to its taxi work to the ISS, the F9 is also touted as being able to place telecommunications satellites in geosynchronous orbit - dramatically undercutting the Russian Proton and Ariane 5 launchers.
Images: SpaceX
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